A reader, Helen Gula, wrote a letter to The Post-Standard a week ago with an interesting suggestion: “Why not name the lovely park at East Fayette and South Warren streets downtown “M. Lemp Park, as a tribute to the M. Lemp Jewelers for their devotion to the city?”

The park opened in May and has been a success, based on comments I picked up. The mayor ordered it built on a demolition site, on what had been a Rite Aid drug store and a brokerage company. Way back, this had been home to Industrial Bank, which opened in 1950. The bank buried a time capsule, which was rescued by folks at the Onondaga Historical Association. It remains on display at the OHA museum, still sealed.

The park has no name. When I checked out the site with Mayor Matt Driscoll and Steve Kearney of the city Department of Economic Development in May, Matt said the park was “shovel-ready” and temporary, awaiting future development. However, turning the blighted site into a park — with grass, benches lighting and walking paths — is a much better thing for downtown than a vacant lot.

Agreed.

Helen Gula’s idea was a good one, too. A park is a nonentity without a name. And what better name than “M. Lemp,” a business that’s survived the nitty-gritty of downtown all these years — 119 and counting. M. Lemp started out when Michael Lemp, great-grandfather of Don Lemp, the modern proprietor, opened a store on North Salina Street, on the site of the modern The Post-Standard, in 1890.

Lemp’s now sits across the street from the park. When I’d finished with Matt Driscoll that day back in May, I walked across Warren and talked with Don Lemp. “This is the best thing to happen downtown in years,” he told me.

He was just as enthusiastic and touched by Helen’s suggestion when I called last week. “We think it’s a great idea,” Don said at first, reacting with a laugh. He added that he was touched “that someone in the community would suggest we be honored in that way.” He said he doesn’t know Helen Gula.

Lemp’s has endured downtown retailing a long time. Excellus Blue Cross Blue Shield built around the store, then left the neighborhood after a negotiation with the city that included a suggestion that eminent domain be employed to take down Lemp’s. Don and his dad, Walter, said OK, but find us another, equal location. And it better be downtown.

As Walter, who died in 2007, used to say “We’re still here.”

David Michel, the city’s economic development director, said Monday he’s aware of the renaming idea but this might not be possible as long as the park is considered temporary. “It’s a cool idea, though,” he added, noting that naming a park required Common Council action.

Meanwhile, the presence of a new park downtown prompted the owner of the building on the park’s east side, the LaFayette, to promise to fix up his crumbled easterly wall. Dave Michel tells me the owner, lawyer Fred Davies, got approval from the Syracuse Industrial Development Agency to rebuild the wall’s surface. Long-range, Dave said the lawyer would like to attract new tenants for the building. He keeps a law office there.

This would suggest the park has a longer shelf life than “temporary.” Development doesn’t happen that fast downtown. The biggest downer for Warren Street in years was when the Excellus workforce fled to DeWitt. The mayor says the deal for a new owner went south when the recession moved in.

Don Lemp, wise in the ways of the neighborhood, commented of the park: “It’s going to be there a while.”

It will outlast Matt Driscoll, for sure. The mayor seemed to realize that when he observed back in May that the park’s supposedly temporary, “just like me.”

Dick Case writes Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday. Reach him at 470-2254, or by e-mail, dcase@syracuse.com.